


Backseat Serenade

by aimthegun



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Abuse, Abuse of Authority, Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - No Sburb Session, Caliginous Romance | Kismesis, Child Abuse, Cutting, F/F, F/M, Flushed Romance | Matesprits, Friendship, M/M, Multi, Physical Abuse, Romance, Teen Romance, Triggers, Unrequited Love, Verbal Abuse
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-06-17
Updated: 2013-06-18
Packaged: 2017-12-15 06:14:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,853
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/846244
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aimthegun/pseuds/aimthegun
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You sigh.  “What the hell are you doing in a fucking trash can?”<br/>“It’s for ironic purposes,” sounds a muffled response.  Of course, you know who it is now by the response.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Your name is Karkat Vantas, and you are probably the only person you know who would rather be at school than at home. 

\- - -

“I’m leaving!” you shout as you make your way out the door. 

“Good riddance, you useless piece of shit!” your dad yells back, his words slurred together. “Maybe you’ll actually be worth someone’s time today!” He laughs loudly. 

Your response is slamming the door shut behind you. “’Useless piece of shit’?” you mutter as you walk down the hill you live on, Prospit Terrace, with your hands shoved in your pockets. “Please, I’m the one actually fucking doing something with my life instead of drinking my damn sorrows away.” You kick a stone in your path out of frustration. It skitters ahead a good twenty feet or so before coming to a stop. When you catch up to it, you kick it again, making a little game out of it. 

You fume over your crappy home life for about ten minutes before you think about your girlfriend, Terezi Pyrope. Just thinking of her name brings a smile to your face. You two have been dating for almost a year and your anniversary coming up in just three months. She is literally the only bright spot in your hell hole of a life, minus all your other friends. For your anniversary, the both of you were planning to spend the weekend at her house. Her mom would be gone on a business trip that weekend, a very fortunate coincidence. 

At the bottom of the hill, a scene in front of you makes you stop short. Someone is lying down on the sidewalk inside a trash can, their legs hanging out. A bike is on its side next to a lamp post, the front wheel still spinning slowly. You can tell by the person’s pants that they go to your school, and that it’s a boy. Girls at your school wear skirts, as mandated by the school’s dress code. 

You have an idea of who this person is, but you want to make sure first. 

You sigh. “What the hell are you doing in a fucking trash can?” 

“It’s for ironic purposes,” sounds a muffled response. Of course, you know who it is now by the response. It’s Dave Strider. 

You narrow your eyes. Ironic purposes, my ass, you think. It looked like he was just going too fast down the hill and lost control of his bike. Instead of crashing into the lamp post and probably killing himself, he dove into the trash can. 

Instead of saying that, you just snort in amusement. “Yeah, right.” He doesn’t say anything. “So, are you trying to be late?” you ask. 

“What?” he replies, confused. “Oh, shit, what time is it?” 

You check the watch your mother gave to you for your birthday last July. “Seven-oh-five. Ten minutes ‘til the early bell rings.” 

“Dammit,” he mutters. He shimmies out of the trash can and, you see the pale blonde hair on his head and the shades on his face that confirm your guess of him being Strider. 

“Strider, right?” you ask anyways. “Rose is your cousin, right? The one dating my friend Kanaya?” 

“That’s me,” he confirms, turning to face you with a smirk on the half of his face that you can see. The smirk falters slightly as he looks you over, but it doesn’t disappear. 

“Okay.” 

“They make a good couple.” 

“Huh? Oh, sure.” 

The two of you walk in awkward silence for a bit. Your school looms ahead, looking grey and uninviting. From where you are, you can see that there are still people scattered all over the courtyard. Your school is small, being a private school and all; not too many people attend it. 

“So you’re Karkat, right?” Strider asks you randomly. “Loud, crabby, cusses a lot?” 

You scowl, trying to think of ways to deny this. However, when you think of past classes, all you can really remember is you shouting at people and cursing under your breath, sometimes pouting when you received terrible grades. You sigh. “Yeah, that’s me. Karkat Vantas.” 

Strider looks as if he is going to respond, but he just shakes his head slightly and chuckles. This infuriates you for some reason. Actually, this kid in general is kind of irritating you. 

“What?” you ask him, narrowing your eyes. 

“Nothing.” He smirks. 

You clench your jaw. “No, seriously, what the hell were you going to say?” 

“Nothing, Vantas, geez.” His tone of voice makes it sound like he was rolling his eyes. You couldn’t tell because of his shades, which just reflected everything around you guys. 

“Can’t a guy have a few thoughts to himself? You’re like a fucking fly; you just keep coming back around like you’re asking to be swat at.” 

The rambling that Strider did distracted you, making you think of flies and fly swatters so that you completely forgot your argument. “Whatever,” you mutter. You two lapse into silence once again as you enter school grounds. You easily catch sight of Kanaya and Rose and both of you make your way over to them. 

“Sup, Rose,” Strider says, coming to a stop next to his cousin. 

“Good morning, Dave,” she replies, one arm linked with Kanaya’s. 

“Hello Dave, Karkat,” Kanaya greets you. “How are you?” 

You just grunt in response, thinking about how your morning actually went. Your dad was drunk again and shouting insult after insult at you mercilessly. He probably passed out after you left, as he works at home during the night. You swear his only goal in life now is to abuse you, since your mom isn’t around for that anymore. 

After tuning back in to the present, you guess that Strider had just told his biking incident story, because Rose was giggling behind her hand and Kanaya was worrying over Strider. 

“Are you alright, Dave?” Kanaya asks, reaching forward to touch Strider’s shoulder. The bell rings before Strider answers, and Kanaya pulls back with a worried look in her eyes. 

“We must get going, Rose,” she says, pulling on Rose’s arm. “I don’t want to be late again.” 

“Chill, Kanaya,” Strider tells her. “That was just the early bell.” 

Rose stops her giggling and smiles apologetically at him. “Sorry, Dave. Ever since Kanaya and I were late to class last week, she’s been paranoid.” Dave just nods in response. 

“Let’s go, Rose,” Kanaya says one last time before Rose waves and the couple walks away, holding hands. 

As soon as they’re gone, you turn to ask Strider what he really did this morning, but a certain John Egbert runs up behind the blonde and jumps on his back. 

“Morning, Dave!” John exclaims, smiling his usual goofy smile. 

Strider grimaces slightly, probably due to recently getting bruised up, but chuckles anyways. “Hey, John. ‘Sup?” 

“Well, I heard Rose and Kanaya talking about you and a biking incident?” He lifts up the tone of his voice at the end of sentence to also ask about it. “I wanted to make sure you were okay.” 

“It was nothing,” Strider answers, shrugging. “Just got a little banged up.” 

John frowns a little. “Oh, I guess jumping on you like that didn’t help much.” He slides off of Strider’s back awkwardly. You snicker, causing the blue-eyed boy to look over at you. “Oh, hi Karkat! I didn’t see you there.” 

You roll your eyes. “What are you, blind?” 

He laughs. “No, you’re just kinda short.” 

Strider snorts loudly, poorly hiding a smirk, and you glare at Egbert. “I’m not that short! You all just have fucking mutant tall genes or something! You’re not even that much taller than me!” 

“Actually, if we’re having a height contest here, I think I get the fucking gold,” Strider cuts in. You look between him and John and, okay, you’ll admit it. You are pretty damn short for your age. 

The bell rings at that moment, saving you from having to respond to that. “Well, we’d better get to our homerooms,” you say. You spin on your heel, attempting to make a dramatic exit, and bump right into somebody, knocking their books to the ground. 

“Oops! Sorry, Karkitty!” the person apologizes. You grimace at the nickname, knowing exactly who it is now: Nepeta Leijon. She has a huge crush on you and everyone knows it, but she has no clue how obvious she is. 

“No, that’s fine, Nepeta,” you reply, sighing as you bend over to help her gather her things. “It was my fault.” Just because you don’t feel the same way doesn’t mean you have to be rude towards her. 

You both stand up and you hand her the few books of hers you picked up. She smiles brightly up at you. Yes, up. Nepeta is one of the few people you know who’s actually shorter than you. 

“Oh well, it doesn’t matter,” she says, still beaming. “I just came by to say hi and wish you a good day.” She winks at you and turns back to Equius, who is standing just a couple feet behind her. “See you at lunch, Karkitty!” she waves and leaves with Equius, who walks her to homeroom almost every morning. 

“Actually, I think that guy gets the gold,” Egbert comments, staring in awe after Equius. You glance at him as well. He’s pretty tall, around six feet maybe. He has the strength to match it, too. However… 

“My friend is a little taller than him, I think,” you reply. You recall a science lab that you had to do last week with Gamzee, the friend you were referring to, as your partner. You measured him to be six-foot-two, almost a foot taller than you. You looked pretty ridiculous measuring him, too; you had to stand on a chair. Strider isn’t paying any attention to you two; he’s too busy laughing behind his hand. 

“What the hell are you laughing about?” you ask him. 

He stops his laughter, but only long enough to say, “Karkitty?” before cracking up again. John starts chuckling as well. 

You slap both of them on the shoulder. “It’s not funny! It’s goddamn annoying!” you shout. 

“That makes it all the damn funnier,” Strider chokes out. 

You huff angrily. “Whatever, jackasses. Let’s get to class.” You proceed to walk off moodily towards the school building, the two laughing buffoons following you inside. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Strider?” you ask, a little louder now so he can hear you over the other students who are chatting away or trying to finish their homework before the bell rings. “Since when are you in this class?”  
> He moves his head slightly to show that he’s now addressing you, as he’s still mysteriously wearing his shades. “Since the beginning of this semester,” he replies easily. “Where have you been?”

Egbert breaks off and heads down a different hallway while Strider continues to walk along with you. “Why are you following me?” you ask him. 

“We’re in the same homeroom, dickwad,” he replies, staring straight ahead. 

“Oh.” 

He snorts. “I’m starting to think that you’re the blind one here.” 

You stick your tongue out at him childishly as you open your homeroom door and walk in. Terezi’s sitting in the back with her on-and-off best friend, Vriska Serket. 

“Look what the cat dragged in,” Vriska says, smirking at you. “How’s Leijon this morning?” 

“Shut up,” you mumble, taking a seat next to Terezi and grabbing her hand. 

Vriska snorts. “I can’t believe you haven’t gotten rid of her yet. Do you need your girlfriend to do it for you?” 

“Can it, Vriska,” said girlfriend speaks up. “He’ll tell her when the moment comes.” 

“Pfft.” Vriska rolls her eyes, but thankfully shuts up. You lay your head down on the desk. 

The teacher walks in the room as the last bell rings. She takes attendance and goes through the normal procedure of starting class. Most of the period deals with scribbling down furiously to keep up with Mrs. Hogan’s history lesson. She goes through everything at hyper-speed, pausing only a couple times to get everyone caught up. You should’ve expected this when you signed up for the AP course. 

The bell ending first period rings and you’re gathering your supplies into your bag when the classroom’s phone rings. 

“Yup, he’s right here,” you hear Mrs. Hogan say. “Alright, I’ll send him on down.” She hangs up the phone and stops you on your way out the door. “Karkat, the guidance office needs you down there.” 

You groan mentally, but just sigh on the outside. Not that place again. They don’t help you at all; no guidance what-so-ever in that hell hole. 

“If you go now, you won’t even need a pass,” Mrs. Hogan adds, politely telling you to get going. 

“Fuck guidance,” you mutter under your breath as you leave her room. She doesn’t call you out on your language, which means she didn’t hear you. Or she just gave up on it. You don’t care either way. 

In the guidance office, you sign in at the counter and have just sat down when Mr. Delmas, your guidance counselor, comes out of his office. You sigh and stand up. 

“Good morning, Karkat,” he greets you, smiling stupidly. “How are you today?” 

“Just peachy,” you respond sarcastically. 

Mr. Delmas just laughs. “As joyful as ever,” he comments your tone. He sobers up pretty quickly, though. “Come with me, please. We have serious matters to discuss.” 

“Fucking fantastic,” you breathe out quietly, following Mr. Delmas into his office. 

“Take a seat,” he says, pointing to a chair. You do as told and he plops himself in front of his computer. “As you know, we are approaching the end of the year quickly.” 

You raise an eyebrow, a little surprised. You had expected him to try and make you talk about your mom again. “Yeah…?” 

“Well, your grades aren’t doing so well. You’re almost failing this marking period, actually.” He smiles sympathetically. 

Your eyes bug out. “You’re joking,” you say incredulously. “I can’t be failing.” 

Mr. Delmas pulls up your student page. “Take a look.” 

You stand up and stare at the screen. A scowl slowly takes form on your lips as you look over your grades. All of them are somehow in the fifties are sixties; minus English, which is an 86. Math is your lowest at a 53. 

“I was thinking that maybe your mother’s passing is a cause of this grade drop…” Mr. Delmas says, watching you carefully. 

A flash of anger courses through you. “This isn’t about my damn mother!” you shout, standing up abruptly. 

“Now, I know this topic make you upset, but you should really talk to someone about it. It might help, and you could get your grades back up…” 

“I don’t need to fucking talk about it!” you continue shouting, not caring that you’re swearing pretty consistently in front of school staff. “It happened in December, and that was that! Maybe if you stopped pulling me out of all my shitty classes, I could actually learn the stupid ass material and get my damn grades up!” With that said and done, you storm out of Mr. Delmas’s office, leaving him staring after you with his mouthing gaping open like a fish. 

The lady at the front desk looks at you worriedly. “Are you alright, Mr. Vantas?” she asks. “What was all that shouting?” 

“I’m fine,” you snap at her, throwing the door open and walking out without a pass. 

You walk into math class halfway through the period, your teacher greeting you with a sneer. You consider flipping him off—no more fucks given—but you assume that you’re already in enough trouble after your little episode in guidance. Instead, you just go ahead and plop down in your seat next to Terezi at the back of the room. As you’re taking our your notebook, she pokes you. 

“Hey, where were you?” she whispers. 

“Guidance,” you mutter, furiously scribbling down the notes you missed to get caught up. Mr. Lodge, your teacher, scans the room and his eyes land on you. He narrows them a bit, and then changes the slide to a page of practice problems. God damn it, you think, leaning back in your chair with an angry huff. He really had it out for you. 

Terezi sighs. “Do you want to talk about it after class? I can sense that there’s more troubling you than just that.” 

You turn your head and look at her. Terezi is very pretty, which always makes you wonder how she chose to be with someone like you while she could’ve had the world. She’s a great manipulator—you know from experience—and the fact that she’s blind makes her just that more badass. 

“Karkat?” Terezi asks, pulling you out of your thoughts. She leans closer to you. “Is this about your dad?” 

“What?” you ask, a little too loudly. A few people turn their heads, but they look away once you begin to glare. “No. Yes. A little.” 

“Wanna come over after school to talk about it?” 

You smile a bit. “Yeah, sure.” 

She smiles back at you. “Okay.” Someone on the other side of her taps her shoulder to gain her attention. You lean forward a bit to see who it is, and you’re just a little surprised to see Strider sitting there. 

“Strider?” you ask, a little louder now so he can hear you over the other students who are chatting away or trying to finish their homework before the bell rings. “Since when are you in this class?” 

He moves his head slightly to show that he’s now addressing you, as he’s still mysteriously wearing his shades. “Since the beginning of this semester,” he replies easily. “Where have you been?” 

You roll eyes. “Shut up.” 

He holds up his notes packet by the stapled corner. “Here,” he says, tossing the packet. It lands on your desk, right in front of you, right side up and all that jazz. “Looks like you’re missing some of… everything today.” 

You scowl and flip back to the blank pages in your notes packet, filling them in with Strider’s notes. As you look over everything, you notice that Strider doodles a lot. “Do you draw?” you ask him suddenly, looking up to see that Terezi was no longer in her seat and that Strider was now occupying it. 

“Not really,” he answers honestly, which surprises you. “I like photography a lot better.” 

“Really? Do you take the photography class here?” 

Strider raises an eyebrow. “Yeah, I’m in your class.” 

You look back down at your notes awkwardly. “Oh.” 

He chuckles. “Fucking blind as your girlfriend.” 

“What about me?” Terezi asks, suddenly appearing between you and Strider. She waves a hand at Strider and he moves back to his seat so she can sit in her own. 

“Nothing,” Strider answers, smirking again. 

Terezi frowns. “I can smell your lies, Dave. What did you say about me?” 

“Just a comment about your blindness. Sheesh, Pyrope. You’ll be one hell of a judge.” 

Her frown deepens. “Don’t make fun of my disability, Dave. I can’t help it.” 

Strider puts his hands up in mock surrender. “Okay, okay. Sorry, TZ.” 

You roll your eyes at them and finish copying down Strider’s notes. 

\- - -

Lunch rolls by and you find yourself conversing with Strider once again along the way. Photography class was right before both your lunches, which you also shared. 

“Dude, your photos suck,” Strider says, going through your folder and shaking his head ever so slightly. You were currently looking through his, and couldn’t help but feel a little—scratch that, a whole fucking lot intimidated. 

“Shut the fuck up, I’m working on it,” you reply, slapping his folder shut and handing it back to him. “Give me my folder back, dickhead.” 

He shakes his head one last time at your terrible photography attempts and hands you your folder. “Do you even like that class?” he asks you. 

You shrug. “Kinda. It’s fun. I wish I was better at it.” You frown. “I thought it would be an easy A, you know?” 

Strider starts laughing unashamedly. “An easy A? Ha!” He laughs so hard that a tear actually rolls down his cheek. 

“Be fucking quiet!” you whisper loudly, watching as a teacher peeks out of her with a scowl on her face directed at the two of you. 

Strider quiets himself, now just chuckling a little behind his hand. He seems to be pretty damn serious about photography. You don’t see the humor in this. 

“Asshat,” you mutter as you both walk into the cafeteria. He snorts, but you ignore him. 

Your eyes immediately find Terezi at a table where she’s sitting alone with Gamzee. They’re leaning close to each other, mouths moving swiftly and looking like they’re having a serious conversation. You narrow your eyes in a fast jump to suspicion and quicken your pace a bit. As soon as you get within five feet of the table, Terezi lifts her head and turns toward you. “Hey,” she says cheerily, smiling brightly. 

You raise an eyebrow at her. “Hi…” 

She sniffs a little. “Is that suspicion I smell coming from you?” she asks, raising her eyebrow as well. 

“No, not really,” you reply, watching as Strider takes a seat next to Terezi. You opt for making a space between her and Gamzee. You keep forgetting that she’s had these weird sensing abilities ever since she went blind. 

“So, do you eat anything besides skittles and fruit juice?” Strider asks Terezi, pulling you out of your thoughts. 

She giggles. “They taste the best! All the colors…” She trails off, licking her lips absentmindedly. You smile at her. “Candy red is definitely, without a doubt, the best flavor ever!” 

Strider smiles. “You are one strange girl, TZ.” He ruffles her hair a little and you bite your tongue to keep from saying anything. 

“Oh, Karkat,” Terezi says suddenly, turning to you. “I can’t hang out tonight. My sister is coming home for week and well… I miss her.” She looks apologetic. “She hardly visits, you know?” 

You force a smile onto your face and nod. “Yeah. Yeah, I know. Tell her I say hi.” 

She smiles gratefully. “Thanks, babe!” She kisses your cheek and stands up. “I have a paper to finish in the library, so I’m going there now.” She gathers her skittles in one hand and grips her cane in the other. 

You stand as well, grabbing her juice. “I’ll come with you.” 

She bites her lip. “I really need to use up every minute I can. Sorry, but I’ll have to be alone for this one.” She gives you a quick peck on the lips before moving around you and walking out of the cafeteria. 

Dejected, you sit back down in your chair, still holding her juice. You take a sip, make a face at the taste, and set it down on the table. The table is in awkward silence for a while until Kanaya, Rose, John, and Jade come thundering in. John quickly takes Terezi’s unoccupied seat and starts chatting away with Strider while Jade occasionally gives her two cents. Kanaya and Rose are lost in their own world, and you just stare blankly and Terezi’s half empty bottle of juice. 

“Hey,” Gamzee says, nudging you. “Don’t motherfucking worry, bro. Everything will be motherfucking fine.” 

You look up at him, sigh, and look back down at your lap. “I hope so.” 


End file.
